wintR

http://www.autofind.com/dealer/detai...H28F7W0107690/

I got to test drive this LS today, it's pretty immaculate for a 1998 and it only has 99k miles. It's actually cleaner on the inside and outside than my 2001 Focus, which I take great care of. There were a few things that are wrong with it though. The speedometer is off by like 10mph. I was on the freeway going with the flow of traffic and the speedo read 80mph, but I know I was going 70mph or so. It's probably just a bad/dirty speed sensor though, easy fix. The car vibrated pretty freakin' bad above 60mph too. Hopefully it's just the alignment, but it could be something like the tranny mounts (from what I've read in this forum); again, not too bad. The car also has 3 Michellin tires and one Goodyear tire, so that might be why too. There's also a weird, bassy drone when you're going around 40-ish mph, not really sure what could cause that. It sound like a vibration, but without the actual vibration.

Lastly, the dealership that is selling this LS ripped out the factory air ride when they received the car because the bags were leaking and causing the vehicle to sag, so they installed new springs and shocks only. It kind of sucks because it's one of the big features of this car that contributes to the great ride comfort. They said it would have cost them $900 per wheel to get the air ride fixed. I'm not really sure how much of the air-ride they ripped out of the car, hopefully all of the wiring and stuff is still there, I didn't take a look at it. The car still rode great though, a lot softer than my Focus but it could definitely be a lot better with the factory air ride.

It has a clean carfax, two owners that both did around 7k miles per year. The second owner, a little old lady, had it for 8 years and had it serviced regularly at a Lexus dealer. Anyways, the dealership is asking $9,950 for it, I'm sure I could talk the salesman down a little bit if the car is still worth looking into. What are your guys' thoughts?

Thanks!

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

The vibrating can be something as simple as wheel balancing.

Also, be thankful they replaced the air-ride with standard shock/spring assemblies. It may sound nice, but they're extremely expensive to replace as you mentioned, and simply isn't worth the hassle in the long run.

Lastly, go onto lexus.com and register for free. You can input the VIN # and receive all of the car's dealer service history.

wintR

I'm hoping that's all that it is.

Good point, I'd probably end up putting lowering springs with shocks (or maybe coilovers) on the car eventually anyways, if I do buy it.

Awesome, thanks for the tip!

Kansas

That seems like an incredibly high price for a car that has had it's guts (air suspension) ripped out and which has a number of other problems. The speedo error could be caused by a bad cluster - there was a TSIB on the cluster. Aside from what you read on another current thread, worn front strut bar bushings are a more common cause of severe vibration at highway speed -- check to see if they have been replaced since they are usually shot well before 99K. But it could be tire imbalance.

The car has the Nakamichi audio system like mine. It is a wonderful system but parts are no longer available to repair them -- make sure that all the speakers and bulbs in the radio work.

Also verify that this car had the steering column fix TSIB applied - the "washer fix" described on this forum does not work in all cases.

Assuming that the car has HID headlights (lots of 99's had halogen) verify that the autoleveling headlight system still works since the sensors were shared with the air suspension system.

I think you could do better than this car if you look around. From what you are telling us, this looks like maybe a $4,000 car to me. If it was on an original unconverted OEM steel spring suspension and there were no other problems, I might call this a $6500 car.

The Phoenix/Scottsdale area is one of the two best sources of lower mileage higher end older cars I've encountered. (Don't tell anyone!) Check the bulletin boards of social/country clubs in Scottsdale. I've been amazed at the low asking prices of Lexus cars that change hands privately with no dealer involvement.

wintR

The salesman said he would call me Monday after they do an alignment. I'll test drive it again to see if the highway vibrations go away. If they don't then I'll definitely try to look at some of the bushings to see how they look. Nothing in the Lexus service record for this vehicle's VIN mentions any sort of bushing replacements though.

All of the speakers did work fine and sounded how they should. I didn't check any bulbs in the deck though.

Is there any easy way I can check to see if this fix was done? In the Lexus service records, there were two entries that related to the steering wheel:

1/14/1998 - "CUSTOMER REPORTS STEERING WHEEL H"
1/14/1998 - "UNABLE TO DUPLICATE CUSTOMER CONCERN AT THIS TIME"

Not really sure what that entailed as the first entry was cut off after the letter H.

The car has halogen housings so I'm assuming it had halogen bulbs.

I'll definitely keep that in mind with the price. This is currently the lowest mileage LS 400 out of Craigslist/Cars.com/Autotrader/etc. in my area. I'll try looking harder though.

Kansas

The headlight bulb type is shown in the lower outboard corner of each headlight lens. If you see HB2, it's halogen. If you see D2R, it's HID.

1998 was the oddest year of the three years this LS400 variation was available in that there are unusual combinations of options around since a buyer could choose options individually instead of mainly getting them in packages.

The following webpage shows the specs for the 98 LS400 - overtype the 1998 in the URL with 1999 and 2000 to see the specs for those model years: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1998/1998LSspecs.pdf

And the following webpage gives a year by year summary of what changed: http://www.lexls.com/info/lsgenerations.html

If the tilt/telescope fix had been applied, you should see it in the service records. The problems mainly affected the 98 and 99 model years. A revised tilt/telescope system was implemented early in the 2000 model year. I've posted the TSIB about it on this forum several times and you can likely find it by doing a search on tilt or telescope. Just because the TISB wasn't applied doesn't mean a particular car is going to develop the problem -- but it's more likely it will.

These really are marvelous cars. I still enjoy my 2000 LS after all these years and far more than the barge like LS460L I test drove last month.

enigma94

iTrader: (1)

I would definitely have the dealership fix the vibration issue before you think about buying the car. It could be anything from a simple wheel alignment/balancing to motor/tranny mounts needing to be replaced which can get somewhat expensive.

I would say the price as listed is quite high even if it does only have 99k on it. If they can fix the vibration issue and the speedometer issue I wouldn't pay more than 8k for the car. That being said, it is extremely hard to find a 98-00 ls400 in az that doesnt have tan interior( this was a big deal to me when searching for my LS as I hate tan) so if you share this feeling than it may be worth a little more to you.

Make sure to also check the rack and pinion and ps pump for leaks. Has it had the timing belt and water pump replaced yet? Check the lower ball joints and strut rods to make sure they won't be needing replacement soon as well.